


Catalyst

by turduckenail



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Hunk is an actual character in this one, Non-Graphic Violence, Or at least it's not described in detail, Rating May Change, What if the Galra got to Earth just a little bit sooner?, there's not gonna be anything too crazy but just to be safe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-25
Updated: 2017-10-25
Packaged: 2019-01-23 04:40:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12498968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/turduckenail/pseuds/turduckenail
Summary: The Galra got to Earth a little sooner than they do in the show, and Earth falls. Things kind of go downhill from there.





	1. Starting With a Bang

**Author's Note:**

> So this started as a what-if scenario that I wrote stream-of-consciousness a few months ago, and last night I decided to clean it up a bit and post it.  
> Basically this is jumping off of the idea of "What if the Galra invasion of Earth happened just a little bit sooner", and exploring how things might change from there. I have no idea where I'm going with this yet but if you guys like it, please leave a comment letting me know and I'll continue writing this. I might anyway, but feedback is going to make that happen a lot faster, because I'm a sucker for attention. :)  
> I did a quick sweep for typos but this is still largely unedited, and there's what I think is a pretty noticeable style difference between the first chapter and the second that came from me writing the first chapter much later and being less stream-of-consciousness with it. I might go back and fix that later, but in the meantime it is what it is. I think it's still enjoyable though.  
> If you spot any typos please let me know, and if you have any constructive criticism/ideas for where you'd like to see this go I'd love to hear them.

They're standing in Keith's shack, still basking in the afterglow of adrenaline that came with rescuing Shiro. Keith is explaining his "project", like the actual conspiracy board he's referencing doesn't place him firmly in nut-job territory.

He's talking about a legend, a myth spoken of by a civilization long dead, a story of a Blue Lion. They can all hear the importance of the name, it resonates in their bones. This is important, and they each know it in a deep-down, shape-of-their-soul kind of way.

Hunk pulls some crazy science like it's nothing, like it's just something he threw together in a couple minutes, no biggie, and starts spouting terminology as if he expects anyone in the room besides Pidge to have any idea what he's talking about.

They don't, but Keith asks to see the graph Hunk made. He holds it up to the board, specifically to a picture of a rock formation in the area and-

Oh.

Well that's convenient.

So Pidge and Hunk throw together some crazy science machine cobbled together with scrap metal they found lying around Keith's desert hermit shack and... whatever, paperclips or something probably. Lance would feel a bit shown-up if Shiro and Keith weren't also looking at their 10-minute-machine-child like they'd straight up pulled it out of thin air.

Then they all pile on Keith's hover-bike again and head out to explore the canyon that somehow matched the shape of Hunk's graph perfectly.

They almost made it too.

They were maybe a half mile out from their destination when a city dropped out of the sky. It was big enough to block out the sun and cast the desert in shadow, and all around it swarmed a cloud of smaller vessels, like hornets around their nest. Fighter ships, they realized, when two or three broke off from the main group and started raining fire on their position.

Keith throttles the gas and makes a mad dash for the safety of the cliffs, but a lucky shot from one of the fighters clips one of the engines on his bike, and they bump and skid along the ground for a few dozen feet before the bike skids to a stop and they're all thrown from their seats.

Lance gets his bearings in time to see the fighters open up and drop... is that infantry? That's infantry. Heck.

Keith's already up and scrambling to get the bike running again, and Hunk's not far behind, but the infantrymen are on them in seconds and they have to leave it behind in favor of booking it for the cliffs to avoid getting shot full of whatever their laser/plasma/whatever guns fire. Hunk almost loses an ear as they retreat, and Keith gets clipped in the arm.

Lance drops behind to cover Pidge, whose shorter legs are making it hard for him to keep up, by lobbing rocks at their pursuers. A large one hits one of them in the head, and it snaps back and tumbles to the sand in a shower of sparks and wires. Robots then. Great. Now they get to try to outrun things that don't have to breathe.

One of them catches up to Shiro, who freezes for a second and Lance is sure he's a goner, until his mechanical hand lights up and he explodes into action, burning right through the chest of the robot and hurling it into another, sending them both tumbling to the ground.

Lance slows for a second as he runs past to snag one of their rifles, then spins on his heel, plants his feet, aims, and fires at the next closest bot. Four down, ten to go.

And they're doing so well, Lance thinks. They'll get to the safety of the cliffs, where they can find some cover and use it to fight back, when one of the bots throws what Lance knows instinctively to be a grenade at them. So Lance takes his rifle and does the single stupidest thing he has likely ever done, and he raises his gun, and fires at it.

He doesn't realize he's been thrown until his vision returns and he wakes up on the ground far to the left of where he was, and he can hear Hunk and Pidge in the distance yelling for him to get up, please, get up, get up Lance, _run, please!_

Lance sees his gun lying next to him. It must've been thrown the same direction as him, and he thinks it the first stroke of good luck he's had all day. He grabs it and struggles into a sitting position. His vision is swimming and there's the overpowering taste of copper in his mouth, but he doesn't actually feel much pain, which he thinks should probably worry him more than it does.

One problem at a time though.

He braces the gun against his shoulder and fires at the robot closest to the others, and it's leg gives out beneath it. A couple of it's friends, realizing that Lance isn't actually dead, switch tracks and fire on him, seeing him as a more immediate threat than the others. He shoots one of them and feels an impact in his shoulder as the other one lands a hit on him. His head is ringing now, but he can still pick out the voices of Pidge and Hunk begging him to run.

He takes out the other robot headed his way, and the remaining five swing around to open fire on him. Lance scrambles out of the way of their bullets and ducks behind a nearby outcropping of rocks, then fires a few more shots in the general direction of the robots to make sure he has their attention and books it.

Hunk is screaming at him, and he sends a silent apology back to him.

Lance can hear two sets of footsteps behind him and he hope the others are fine taking care of the last three on their own. He ducks around a corner just in time to avoid another shot, and sends a volley of his own shots back, shooting mostly blind and hoping that a couple of them land, then taking off running again. Now there's just one set of footsteps, which Lance is grateful for, but he's not sure how much ammo he has left.

He finds another bit of cover to fire from, and fires another volley, but he only gets out a handful of shots before his gun clicks empty. He throws the gun at the robot and keeps running, hoping to lose it in the narrow paths and caves in the cliffs. Eventually the footsteps behind him fade into the distance, and Lance allows himself to stop and catch his breath.

His breath is loud in his ears, and beyond that the silence is oppressive. A splotch of red appears in the sand under him, and Lance is struck with the sudden certainty that he's completely alone, and there's no help coming.


	2. Here Kitty Kitty

Lance stumbles into the cave on his own, heavily injured and heading towards what he hopes is safety. He knows the cave is probably a dead end, but he can feel an almost tangible tug towards it.

That tug, it turns out, is the Blue Lion calling him to her.

He stumbles inside her, barely holding on to conciousness, and as soon as he's strapped into the pilot's seat she takes off.

She rockets out of the ground and into the atmosphere in a blink. She evades the Galra warships patrolling the planet and lunges through a wormhole before they can give chase. Her Paladin is injured, and the only way she knows to help him is to bring him to safety. And safety means the Castle of Lions.

She roars to open the gates and whips through them without bothering to land. It's a tight squeeze, but she knows the castle like she's known the minds of all her paladins before. She takes the fastest route she can find to the medical ward.

Allura and Coran have been awakened by the castle by now, and they're huddled around the one console in the room trying to figure out why they were woken up when they hear a thundrous racket in the halls. They hardly have time to blink before Blue's head appears in the doorway. It shatters the frame and a good chunk of the walls on impact, but her shoulders jam against something more solid and she opens her maw. Out tumbles a human, dressed in crude armor and bleeding from several injuries. He hits the ground and the momentum causes his body to bounce and roll several feet before he slides to a stop.

He doesn't get up.

The Alteans stand in shock for a minute, then Blue growls urgently and they snap to attention. Coran hurries to ready a healing pod (and thank all the stars in the universe they're still operational) and Allura slings his arm over her shoulder and carries him to the pod.

It hums to life the moment he's inside. It begins to dissolve the blood and grime coating his face and clothes, and everyone breathes a sigh of relief when the painkillers kick in and his face relaxes.

Blue rumbles low in her chest, as close to a purr as a mechanical lion can get, and carefully extricates herself from the doorway. She pads to the hangar, content that her Paladin is in good hands.

\---

Hunk is captured and sent to work at an excavation site. A rune on the wall glows yellow and the wall crumbles to dust. The Yellow Lion waits for him on the other side and they tear through the plateau and Galra defenses like cardboard in their mad dash to get away get to safety be anywhere but _here._

\---

Pidge sneaks onto one of the ships. She knows what took her dad and brother, she's sworn to herself that she'll get them back, but that hope is distant. An "I'll get to it eventually but I can't afford to make it a priority right now" plan. But then they took Hunk and she's not about to let him slip through her fingers too. (Not after Lance. She's already lost one of her best friends, she refuses to lose another.)

She spends weeks stowing away on cargo ships, biding her time until she has the chance to find a craft that will have the information on where prisoners are sent.

She's so close to finding the information she needs when the Galra discover her presence.

She scrambles for an escape pod and ejects it into space. Two small fighter ships launch seconds after her. She pushes the pod as fast as she can, and finally manages to lose them in the rings of a planet she's never heard of.

And by lose them, she means she's broadsided by an asteroid before she has the chance to evade and is sent careening towards the surface of the planet below.

The fighters pull away, thinking she'll either be killed on impact or burn up in the atmosphere on the way down.

And they would have been right, if it weren't for a green lion mech erupting from the forest canopy below that snatched her pod out of the air and deposited it safely on the ground.

Pidge stumbles out of the escape pod and stares up at the machine and watches as it stares back at her.

Then it crouches low to the ground and opens it's jaws wide, and Pidge does what any sane person would do when presented with a giant being opening a mouth full of metal body-length teeth.

She stepped inside.

\---

Keith and Shiro stick together like glue even after they're separated from the others.

Lance died buying the rest of them time to escape from an ambush. Keith thought he saw him take cover in a cave, but then the canyon around him had collapsed with a sound like thunder but louder and he was gone.

Then Hunk had been captured, going out with guns blazing. He'd taken Lance's loss the hardest. Everyone knew he would take the first chance he had to avenge his best friend, but in the end that plan had been his undoing.

Not a week later Pidge had disappeared as well. He'd left a note briefing them on his plan and basically telling them "Either I'll rescue Hunk and come back or I'll die trying."

After that Keith refused to let Shiro out of his sight.

He'd already lost the rest of his team - which was certainly a shame, but he'd hardly known them. Their bond had been one forged out of mutual necessity, and while their loss hurt (It hurt more than he would ever admit.) he could live with it.

But Shiro was his brother. Keith couldn't lose him again, he just couldn't. He'd never be able to forgive himself for letting him slip through his fingers _again_. Keith would rather die.

So when the Galra finally caught up to them and dragged them onboard their ship, Keith resisted with everything he had.

To his credit, so did Shiro, and he did pretty well, considering he only had the one working arm and his other was a 20-odd pound metal deadweight and he was probably fighting off flashbacks as well.

Whatever the case, it was enough to hold off the soldiers until Keith was able to break away, grab Shiro by the arm, and take off at a sprint.

He guided them towards what he hoped was the hangar, hoping to find something light and fast and preferably armed to hijack. Even an escape pod would work. Anything to get off this ship.

He had no such luck.

The hangar they ended up in held only one ship. It was large, had no visible entrance, was barricaded behind a very solid particle barrier, and had no visible jets or anything that would indicate it was capable of flight. It was a giant lion mech, for Pete's sake, for all he knew it was just there to look intimidating.

And for the icing on the cake, the Glara had secured the door. Keith had barricaded it as best he could, but there was no way it would hold them for long.

So basically they were screwed.

Shiro's heavy breathing finally registers in Keith's mind. He'd taken a beating during the fight earlier and his PTSD probably isn't helping matters. Keith would suggest reactivating his arm to give him a chance to properly fight, since the Galra already know where they are now anyways, but he doesn't know how to reactivate it. Pidge was the expert on that subject.

Keith growls in frustration and pounds the particle barrier with his fist. The ship might not be space worthy, but it's the only chance he and Shiro have right now.

He bows his head and takes a few deep breaths. The commotion beyond the door is growing in volume and intensity and he knows it won't be long until the weak barricade is breached.

Keith glances around the room and his eyes land on a long piece of metal about the length of his arm. Probably a tool of some sort. Keith snatches it up and tests the weight in his hands. It's not perfect, but it's all he's got right now.

The doors burst open and Keith decides then that he won't allow them to take his brother again. Not while he's still breathing.

He lunges forward.

So does the lion.

\---

Hunk is used to being one of the smartest people in the room. He prides himself on his ability to figure things out and troubleshoot. To connect the puzzle pieces into something resembling a big picture. Or at least something close enough to work with.

So when Hunk says he has no idea what's going on, that he can't make heads or tails of anything in the situation, it's a pretty big hecking deal.

And Hunk has no idea what is going on right now, and the sentient lion mech in his head isn't really helping matters.

He's actually pretty proud of himself for figuring out that the lion mech was sentient. In the rush to escape from the Galra work camp, Hunk's world had narrowed down to the concept of escape. His thoughts had devolved into a panicked mantra of get out get out be anywhere but here don't let them catch you _run_. So caught up in his panic he'd been that he didn't notice the echo to his thoughts. The new, solid presence in his mind telling him to dodge right, that switch will fire a laser, enemy on the left, fire, take that opening, don't let it close, go go _go._

He didn't notice how the ship seemed to obey his every command, even before he adjusted the controls. He didn't need to aim, the ship knew what he wanted to hit and aimed for it on it's own.

Only once they'd gotten past the fighting and were drifting serenely through the blackness of space and he had a moment to breathe did Hunk notice the hum at the back of his mind.

The second he noticed it, the sound swelled and surrounded him. He realized it wasn't so much of a hum as it was a low rumble. Almost a purr. Only he couldn't hear it, per se, even though he could feel it rumbling in his bones, down to his very core. It was more like having a particularly vivid memory of a sound, but this was sustained and unfamiliar.

Whatever it was, it was actually pretty nice. Hunk leaned back in the pilots seat and let the sound calm his heartbeat.

**Author's Note:**

> Leave kudos, comment and subscribe for more!  
> You can find me on tumblr @turduckenail. I'm always open to chat about stuff so if you want to yell with me about season 3 I'm all ears. :D


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